Their fingers brush momentarily as Berwald joins him in uprooting the green, contributing to the little mound. His voice softens to a murmur, a whisper, and Tino’s breath quickens, his toes wriggle. He jitters, nervous.

And the way Berwald says that last part, so clear and firm, and the way that their eyes meet, everything in Tino’s vision tunnelling and narrowing and coming to one perfect pinnacle –the Swede’s face – leave Tino somewhat breathless and blushing fiercely. But he’s not going to relent yet.

“But what… what if I don’t want to kiss you? Not now, not ever? What if I never want to sleep with you-”

“Make love.”

Eyes narrowing. Attempts to ignore the fluttering in his chest. For their peers, sex is meaningless and what sustains a relationship. Berwald is something amazing, something rare. Respectful. Tino doesn’t fall in love with him all over again.

“I might kiss you then, if your breath didn’t smell like thousand year old fish.”

Berwald’s gaze snaps up, and Tino swears he hears his breath catch. His blush rages on as he realises what he’s said.

“I mean… I meant…” He trails off. He can’t look at Berwald, lying there, watching him imploringly. Lovingly. Longingly. Tino won’t feel guilty for not telling how he feels.

When he doesn’t continue and Berwald doesn’t respond, they lapse into a silence. Awkward, and tense, and full of desperate emotions.

Unspoken words hang heavy in the space between them, though Tino feels that they have been very much implied and insinuated and said. His fingers trace truths over the ground, sinking strengths into the soil. Tino muses the idea of someone laying in this spot in a hundred years’ time with the person they secretly love, and use his courage planted here to tell them.

Seconds, minutes, hours – they pass in a blur of light blue and orange and pink and purple as Tino watches the sky, listens to Berwald’s breathing. Crickets begin to chirp around them, and Tino is getting cold and exhausted. His heartbeat has been thrumming fast and hard in his chest for far too long.